Curious to see which ones cracked the top 10? The results might surprise you…

The Best Value Colleges in the U.S.

To begin with, Money looked at 2,000 four-year colleges and universities across the U.S., omitting those “with graduation rates below the median, financial difficulties, or fewer than 500 undergraduates.”

It then ranked the remaining 705 schools on 24 factors in the following categories: educational quality, affordability and alumni success.

That’s not all, though. It looked at the mix of majors offered — and even analyzed how the schools did comparatively, by assessing “how well students at each school did vs. what’s expected for students with similar economic and academic backgrounds.”

Based on those comprehensive guidelines, here are the top 10 best value colleges. (If you want to see the full list, click here.)